Dalmatia’s fjaka state of mind

By Elvin Reed, Mar 10, 2018

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Many of us are from the big cities, where the pace of life is so frenetic and chaotic that it’s difficult to imagine a day where you don’t have a million and one things to do. There is so much stress and anxiety that can be caused by living in the city, and this is something that many people from small towns don’t have to deal with.

So, sometimes it’s good to detox and escape to a much more relaxed and calm way of life. Taking a vacation is a good way of doing this, but, if you’re visiting a city, you may well have the same problem again. Well, take a journey with us now, to the stunning maritime hinterland of southern Croatian, where life is serene and peaceful, and discover a concept the locals call fjaka.

What is fjaka?

To try to define fjaka sounds strange because it’s such a transcendental kind of idea. Basically, the local definition of fjaka is the state of mind a human being reaches where they want nothing. Now, this might seem a difficult thing to get your head around when we live in a world that is constantly changing and producing new things all the time. But we take fjaka to mean, basically, the concept of contentment. Of being perfectly happy and satisfied with your life, so much so that there is nothing else you feel you want.

Summer slowdown

The time when you really notice fjaka in Dalmatia is in the slow, lazy summers that seem to go on for an age. Where the pace of life slows right down, and everybody seems to be in some wonderful, trance-like state. This has also led to the local saying “He/She’s got the fjaka!” It might seem an alien concept to us, but how much better would life be if we all took a minute to smell the roses, and calmed down more. Replenishing the body and mind is so important, and lazy summers relaxing in Dalmatia, and letting the fjaka wash over you, is the perfect time to do this.

Health benefits

There are so many health benefits to taking this approach and allowing yourself to be overcome by fjaka. So many people are getting ill these days due to issues like stress and anxiety, and these are compounded by fast-paced city life. Having a much more relaxed and laid-back approach to life in general definitely helps with this, and we can learn so much from it. Perhaps more of us need to adopt the concept of fjaka. Maybe we should even try to introduce it into the cities where possible.

Dalmatia is one of those idyllic places you might expect to see depicted in a painting or pressed onto the front of a postcard. The charming and zen-like paradise of Croatia is a place that must rank among the most peaceful and serene in the world. If you feel like the big cities are detrimental to your health and well-being, this is the sort of place you should look to escape to. By understanding and adopting the concept of fjaka, you will be very well placed to become a much calmer and more relaxed person.